The Museum of Fashion and Costume is one of the museums housed inside the Pitti Palace in Florence, in particular in the Palazzina della Meridiana, a pavilion south of the building which can also be accessed from the Boboli Gardens.
The wing known as the Palazzina della Meridiana was built on behalf of Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena from 1776 on the southern side of the building. The work was begun by the architect Gaspare Paoletti, who worked on it until 1813 assisted by Giuseppe Cacialli.
A decade later it was completed by Pasquale Poccianti, who built the southern façade, equipped the building with new rooms and oversaw the decoration program.
In 2007, after more than a century, the building was reopened allowing you to admire the Sundial, the work of Vincenzo Viviani, and the frescoes that Anton Domenico Gabbiani created for the Grand Prince Ferdinando.
The display of clothes and accessories in the window is renewed every two years through a 'selection' of items extracted from the warehouses. The first five selections followed a didactic criterion retracing the changes in styles from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, at a time when, in Italy, clothing as a work to be museumized was still a very new operation.
The objectives of the first five selections (1983-1993) were therefore to illustrate the history of fashion, in chronological order, and to exhibit in rotation the works of what was becoming one of the most significant museums in the sector. Alongside the clothes there were also accessories, while the set-up could include underwear and bedroom underwear.
In the catalogs (Series "La Galleria del Costume" 1-5), with initial essays that address different aspects of the history of historical costume, as well as problems inherent to the set-up, there are detailed cards above the individual dresses on display which include technical data, historical and note of any restoration interventions.
Costume Gallery - Pitti Palace
Address:
Phone: +39 055 238 8713
Site:
http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/costume/esposizioni/index.php?m=costumeLocation inserted by
Paola Bonometti